2009 REVIEW

This was an amazing year (again, yeah). A year full of strange and beautiful little things that has happened. I love looking at my photos while listening to the music! I guess I am a pretty lucky lady!

January.... Working on my first official wedding cake! The couple is happy and their newborn babygirl is perfectly fine. It was white chocolate cake decorated with pink petals.

February....

Wonderful London's vacation. I get hungry looking on the muffins' photos. Food was found even in the British Museum together with the ancient tombs. So many things you realise while travelling. Sprouts festival. Bloody red Pavlova.



March....

Cooking festival is running. There are many photos of different dishes from March. That was the time of challenging new muffin recipes, tasting Austrian bread and Swiss chocolate brought home by my husband. Culinary warming up.


April....

My first hot cross buns baked in Poland. Ultimate! Experiments with sourdough and chocolate. Easter bakes. Easter fair in the Krakow main square. Pascha, beetroot soup, rhubarb tart.



May....

Wine, aubergines, knots, dandelions in the kitchen, strawberries. Fresh produce and celebrating. That was impressing, but there were so many things to come!


June....

Strawberry-chocolate muffins, yeah yeah. Light breads. Pasta with sorrel - never again and don't do this at home. Even don't check if I am right. Jelly party. Bread festival in Krakow.



July....

Checking out fresh fish. Apricots. Till this summer I didn't understand why the Brits are so crazy about this fruit. Now I am one of them. My husband's obsession with strawberry Swiss roll. Watch these wonderful photos: fruits grown in Poland, photos with no photoshop.


August....

Aboundance of fruits. Blueberry brioches of grandma. Pikeperch. Krakow Taste Festival. Here I also realise that a one kilo package of the white miso paste from Gosia is going to pass its expire date shortly. I formulated the first right of the cooking friends: If you want make your friend adventurous in the kitchen, present him or her an exotic ingredient in large quantity. Cucumber miso soup - miso nr 1.


September....

Picking up plums and making jam. Mushroom time. Seabass revealed. Dorade. Green vegetables miso soup (2). Carrot miso soup (3). Graden bearing fruits. Plus peppers. Muf muf muffin!



October....

From cucumbers in butter - challenging the book of Julie Powell. Than fighting with the cheesecake. After all, I compare it to driving, it's the matter of loosing the fear. Also first signs of this year's autumn. Cheese miso soup (4). Coconut walnut cake. Another coconut cake. Our second wedding anniversary and a nice Chinese dinner. Seaweed salad. Seaweed miso soup (5). Sweet potato baked.



November....

Miso soup (6) ... Spicy pumpkin tart. Coconut and muffins. Pineapple tea. Vitamin banana tartalettes (?). Culinary fair in Krakow... Polish wine tasting!!!



December....

Cooking for the guests of the international scientific conference Aid for Tuvalu. Huge public response. Recognition of the honorary consul of Tuvalu in London. Only empty dishes left. Fish&coconut soup, banana drops, mango and chicken meatballs, coconut jelly, jackfruit chips, banana&sweet potato salad, coconut chocolate muffins, fresh manogoes, coconut flesh, papaya, kiwano, longans, star fruit, palm heart,s tapioca pudding, fruit poke and tropical juices. All this in Poland, at the opposite side of the globe. Topped with sweet style herrings. Thanks guys! That was a pleasure to cook and write for you!

What to do with leftover party food?

So New Year has started. I made new plans. Today I begin to carry out my dreams and I still hope to fulfil them. I feel fresh, but yesterday I was in different mood, I was tired after long night and short sleep. And I had a slight hangover. Usually to recover quickly I prefer long walking, especially that Dublin looks beautifully in winter sun after nightly snowing. When we came back home we were very hungry. I looked into my fridge where there was a lot of leftover party food, but I couldn't find anything for two meals. I faced a small dillema - to make a new dinner or to eat leftovers. So I combined both ideas and made “New Year wraps with old year filling”. What was in my fridge?

I had:

6 filo sheets
1 cookover filet of salmon (about 100 g)
5 large cookover potatos
3 tbs. of caper
1 roast red pepper
1 chilli pepper
a few leaves of basil
1 onion
a few tbs. of malted butter
1 ts. of turmeric
black pepper and salt

As the first I mashed potatos, next I added salmon still mixing. I cut onion into small squares and fried on butter till getting gold colour. I cut caper, roasted pepper, chilli pepper and basil into small pieces. I added all ingredients and turmeric, black pepper and salt into a bowl with mixed potatos and salmon and blended well.Each filo sheets I spreaded with butter and put on middle filling and wraped. I spread the butter on every wrap and put on baking tray and next put into oven. My wraps baked at 180 degrees Celsius for around 20 minutes. I served hot wraps with piquant sauce and mixed salad. Enjoy!

I think this recipe is good with other ingredients which remained after party. I wonder if you have your own ideas on what to do with leftover party food?

Happy New Year!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010

WE wish YOU to have a..
Sweetest - Sunday,
Marvellous - Monday,
Tasty - Tuesday,
Wonderful - Wednesday,
Thankful - Thursday,
Friendly - Friday,
Successful - Saturday.
Have a great Year.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!
Gosia and Ila

Cheesecake at Christmas

In my family cheesecake is always served during Christmas. I remember the taste of my grandmother's cheesecake. Every ingredient for cheesecake was from her farm and she made delicious Christmas cheesecake. My mother and her sisters make this cake on Christmas but it is not the same. Every cheesecake has a little different taste than taste of my grandmother's cake. There is a problem with cheese because it is the main ingriedent. My grandmother made it with cheese (Quark),it was from fresh milk cows which she bred. It was the real cheese. Organic quark that tastes as grass, forest, soil, mountains, winds. I loved it. Now cheeses are different especially in foreign countries, but all my family make cheesecake at Christmas, so do I. This is a tradition, and keeping memory of my ancestors.
Below is my family recipe of Polish cheescake. I changed some ingredients for those who can't get any ingredients.


6 eggs;
1 glass of powder sugar
0,5 kg Quark or Ricotta Cheese
2 tbsp potatoes flour or corn flour
1 tbsp orange or lemon peel; grated
2 ts baking soda
150 gram butter;
1 1/2 ts vanilla extract
½ glass of raisin

1)Mash Quark very well.
2)Crack the eggs, separate yolks from egg whites.
3)Beat egg whites.
4)Melt butter and a little cool down.
5)Beat yolks with sugar. When mixture is white add carefully mash quark and mix very well.
6)Next add potates flour, butter, baking soda still blending well.
7)Add orange peel, vanilla extract and rasin, mix well.
8)Finally add eggs white and mix carefully with table spoon.
9)When dough is ready put in baking pan.
10) Put it into the oven at 180 Celsius degrees for around 50 minutes. Don't open the oven until the cheese cake is ready. Have a look inside through a glass after 40 minutes of baking and see if the cake is not too brown on its upper side. When ready take cheese cake out of the oven and set it aside to cool off. Serve cool.

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas